Finding Liberty in a Little White Church
Sitting on the Deck
It was hot today in Wisconsin — the kind of heat that settles on your shoulders and makes even the shade feel warm. We sat on the deck for a while, telling the wind to kick up a breeze, sweating and laughing about it, until the heat finally pushed us back inside. Something about the heaviness of the air reminded me of our early summers in Tennessee. And that memory opened a door to one of my favorite stories from our songwriting years.
The Drive That Changed Everything
Shortly after we moved to Tennessee, we took a drive to find Tim McGraw and Faith Hill’s house. Their address had been printed in the paper because they’d built a pool house, and curiosity got the best of us. We found it — a gorgeous old Southern brick mansion tucked into the hills. But the real surprise came when we kept driving.
There, in the middle of the Nashville suburbs, stood a small white country church: Liberty United Methodist Church. Put 100 people in it and it was full. A huge tree — easily 200 years old — shaded the front yard. The parking lot held maybe twelve cars. It felt like stepping back in time.
We decided to go the next week.
So we went. And I wore shorts. I remember thinking, If they can accept me for who I am, then I’ll know I’m in the right place.
Well — accept me they did. Completely. They welcomed us with kindness, warmth, and a loaf of Patsy Fly’s homemade bread. Fresh, hot, white bread right out of the oven. It tasted like my grandmother’s kitchen.
After the service, everyone gathered for coffee and simple conversation. A curly‑haired fellow walked up to Uno, stuck out his hand, and said, “Hi, I’m Kix.”
Turns out it was Kix Brooks of Brooks & Dunn. He was a member there. That week, I think there were about thirty people in the pews.
We started going regularly. Every summer, the church held picnics out at Kix’s farm. It was relaxed, friendly, and full of laughter. We knew him not as a country star, but as the guy who poured coffee after church and hosted picnics by the pond, next to the cattle and under the Tennessee sky.
Liberty became home.
Sharing Songs at Liberty
It was at Liberty that I shared many of the worship songs I wrote. Uno did too. One Sunday, he sang a song called “What a Friend I Had in Jesus.” When he finished, Kix gave him a thumbs‑up from his seat in the pews. That small gesture meant the world to Uno. That song — in Uno’s voice — will be on my next album this fall, along with the title track he wrote, “Quiet My Soul.”
During our years at Liberty, Uno and another church member worked together on a small album of recordings for the congregation. It was simple, heartfelt, and full of the voices we worshiped with every week.
At Liberty I shared my worship songs when I became a bit jaded about the commercial song industry.” And sometimes I wrote songs as the Holy Spirit moved on me in the pew. One of those songs, “Fall Before Your Throne” is on my next album also.
Liberty indeed.
A Place That Stayed With Us
That little white church was special for the rest of our years in Tennessee. I still keep in touch with some of the folks from there.
Funny how a hot Wisconsin afternoon can bring back the memory of a tiny church with a twelve‑car parking lot, a 200‑year‑old tree, and a community that welcomed us exactly as we were.
Sometimes, when I’m in the studio, I catch sight of the Liberty plaque hanging on the wall — 
the pencil drawing of that little white church, the steeple, the word WELCOME sketched across the bottom. The church gave it to both of us after Uno helped record their album, though he did most of the work. It looks like one of those fancy producer plaques, but it carries something deeper: the memory of a community that loved us well.
On warm days like this one, sitting on the deck with the air thick and still, I’m reminded of how unexpected it all was — finding Liberty on a road we weren’t even supposed to be on, meeting people who became family, singing songs that would
follow us home. That tiny church shaped our Tennessee years in ways we didn’t understand at the time. But we do now.
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